Insects in the Anthropocene – how insects can help us understand our changing world.

Abstract

Biodiversity loss is a global issue, exacerbated by multiple threats from human activities such as habitat loss, landscape transformation and climate change. There has been an increasing global awareness of the important of biodiversity for maintaining functioning ecosystems which provide us with clean air, water and food, however biodiversity loss and climate change continue to accelerate. There is therefore an urgent need for research to understand biodiversity loss and predict future declines under increasing human pressures. I focus on the biodiversity of a super-diverse and ecologically essential group – tropical insects, including moths and termites, and how they are responding to environmental change. I will present results demonstrating the importance of insect biodiversity for ecosystem function such as nutrient redistribution and decomposition, and how these functions are affected by climate change impacts such as drought. These insects can be used as sensitive indicators of climate change, and I will summarize some current and future research directions using insects as ecological tools to understand our rapidly changing world in ecosystems ranging from undisturbed to agricultural ecosystems.